6m FT8 RX

Since breakfast, I have been in 6m FT8 RX again. No spots as yet. Yesterday surprised me with several UK spots plus a German on 6m.

UPDATE 1542z: No 6m spots all day.

Sunspots - Wednesday October 18th 2017

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number again zero. A=6 and K=2.

Back on 630m WSPR

About 5 minutes ago I returned to 630m WSPR. My ERP is about 10mW. I am interested to know if my extra earth and radials help. Last night was inconclusive.

UPDATE 2122z: Well, things are still inconclusive! I am getting a similar number of spots of my 630m WSPR signal as I am giving out. What does that tell me?

10m WSPR TX (500mW)

About 30 minutes ago I turned on the 500mW 10m WSPR beacon. As yet, no spots.

UPDATE 1304z: Still no spots.

6m FT8

A few minutes ago, I switched to 6m FT8. As the 10m antenna is unused, I may go on 10m WSPR TX at the same time.

UPDATE 1002z: No spots.

UPDATE 1300z: 3 UK spots so far on 6m FT8.  Best DX is MW0LGE (229km) in South Wales. By the way, this is with WSJT-X V1.8.0 rc2 and a V2000 vertical omni.

UPDATE 1750z: Best 6m FT8 DX today is DK1QG (645km) near the Danish border.

Sunspots - Tuesday October 17th 2017

Solar flux is 70 today and the sunspot number remains 12.  A=9 and K=2.

10m FT8 RX and FT8 rc3

As usual, I switched to 10m FT8 RX at breakfast. No spots as yet. Apparently WSJT-X v1.8.0 rc2 has been out for a month and now rc3 is available. There may be a proper release of V1.8 as early as next week. K1JT has been busy with neutron stars!

I may try 6m FT8 RX later. 10m FT8 seems to work a dream.

Last night on 630m WSPR

Overnight I was keen to see if the addition of 2 radials and an additional ground outside the shack improved my results on 630m WSPR. Well, I am not sure. Overall I got spots from 10 unique stations (my highest yet) and I spotted 10 unique stations. Clearly some new stations copied me, but I am not sure if this is my system or just that they have recently returned to 630m. Certainly my reports of "regulars" on RX seem no better. At the moment, I am doubtful of any improvement, although it needs a few more nights to get a better picture.

630m "improvements"

My 630m radiating system has been altered with a couple of radials across the grass and an additional ground outside the shack. Measured antenna current is no higher, which surprised me. This evening and overnight we'll see if there are any improvements in reality.

USA on 10m FT8

Not long ago, WB2REM (7017km) in Florida was spotted on 10m FT8. There are South Americans and the Falkland Is coming through. Earlier Burkina Faso and South Africa were spotted on 10m FT8.